Within the confines of our own minds, a whole bunch of sh*t can happen to screw up your golfing ability. It is within this realm that Josh Karp writes Straight Down the Middle, his new book from Chronicle Books LLC.
The author tells me; “The basic idea is, can inner peace lower my handicap, or will lowering my handicap help me find inner peace?”
Well, a few years ago, Mr. Karp decided to embark on a two-year journey he hoped would not only help him find his authentic swing, but perhaps his spiritual path to boot. Married and in his late thirties, with 3 kids, another on the way, and a handicap pushing 20, Mr. Karp was a anxious man wrestling with his own thoughts.
His free time was consumed with baseball stats (hugh White Sox fan), golf and finding ways to channel his mental activities so he could relax. Convinced his worrying (a constant struggle to accept his own mortality) was affecting his golf game, he enlisted the help of various golf gurus that had backgrounds in (mostly) Zen Buddhism. Straight Down the Middle is about this journey.
Like many journeys, it’s filled with success, failure, frustration, and jubilation (after more success). I rejoiced every time Mr. Karp’s game improved after visiting a golf guru…and felt utterly disappointed when that initial success was short lived. I admired his openness to learn unique and sometimes unorthodox techniques and sympathized with his struggle to overcome his own internal demons.
There were times in the book when I’d become frustrated at Mr. Karp’s overanalyzing of what seemed like every situation; his terrible habit of worrying about…well, everything; and his overall anxiety in general. But when I finished the book, I realized those passages were necessary to show just how far he had come to finding inner peace both on the course and in his daily life.
Straight Down the Middle is well-written, humorous and extremely fascinating. But what’s great about Mr. Karp’s book is it’s applicable to any golfer at any skill level. You don’t have to be a Buddhist (or be in the process of converting to one) to appreciate and apply some of the ideas (and they’re mostly ideas, not swing tips) you’ll find within its pages.
Thus, when I played my first round after reading it, I found that Straight Down the Middle had given me a very refreshing ability: I seem to no longer fret over my duffs and shanks and flubs. What’s more, it helped me cut through all the BS and let me just play. It’s all clear to me now: Golf is a game that can provide unlimited happiness in your life…if you’d just let it.
You can purchase your copy of Straight Down the Middle by Josh Karp HERE.
